{"id":263,"date":"2011-08-08T17:07:22","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T00:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/?p=263"},"modified":"2011-08-30T17:18:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T00:18:38","slug":"how-to-use-your-android-phone-to-get-on-the-internet-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/how-to-use-your-android-phone-to-get-on-the-internet-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use your Android phone to get on the internet in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the simple process for getting your Android device online with a data SIM in the UK. \u00a0It’s terribly fun, I recommend it to everyone.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Before leaving, turn off your phone and do not turn it on again. \u00a0Some carriers reportedly will charge you roaming rates when people leave<\/em> you voicemail if you turn on your phone out of the US, even if you never make or receive a call, because it’s “registered” there.<\/li>\n
  2. Pick up a SIM card from the local mobile store, wireless stand, fast food chain, gas station, vending machine, cabbage shop, or hobo. \u00a0I opted for the “Orange 3G card”.<\/li>\n
  3. Put card in phone.<\/li>\n
  4. Hope your phone is unlocked. If not, find a way to make international calls without your phone, and call the *international* support line for the carrier that sold you the phone. \u00a0Tell them you need the SIM unlock code and explain why. \u00a0Note that only the international support line will give it out (not the usual one), and then only sometimes. \u00a0If this fails, you’ll be exploring the seamy underbelly of the internet for the keywords “unlock phone”. \u00a0Been there, done that, don’t recommend it. \u00a0Other alternatives: travel without data, fly home.<\/li>\n
  5. Enter SIM unlock code. \u00a0Carefully. \u00a05 or so wrong answers and your phone is a useless brick.<\/li>\n
  6. Get on the internet!<\/li>\n
  7. Just kidding. \u00a0Follow directions in booklet; go to www.orange.co.uk. \u00a0Fill out forms to load card with money. \u00a0Stare blankly at “postal code” section of credit card info and realize that they don’t support foreign cards.<\/li>\n
  8. Call 450. \u00a0Navigate phone tree. \u00a0Get stuck again when they need post code.<\/li>\n
  9. Curse at phone creatively until connected with an operator.<\/li>\n
  10. Explain situation. \u00a0Provide card info, including US address, which they will accept as your billing code.<\/li>\n
  11. Have operator ask you for UK post code “for your current location”. \u00a0Argue for a while. \u00a0Give up, google “UK post code”, and choose a result at random.<\/li>\n
  12. Provide a witty retort when your clever operator with a perfect Pakistani British accent observes that your post code is the same as that of Buckingham Palace. \u00a0Stand firm in your assertion. \u00a0Share a chuckle.<\/li>\n
  13. Put 10 pounds on the card.<\/li>\n
  14. Choose an oddly named bonus plan (e.g. “Dolphin”), which is mostly irrelevant, since it takes up to 72 hours to take effect, and you’re leaving in 72 hours. \u00a0Note that they won’t mention this detail until the transaction is done.<\/li>\n
  15. Tell them you want the 5 pound “250 megabyte” data package.<\/li>\n
  16. Get on the internet!<\/li>\n
  17. Ha ha, fooled you. \u00a0Still joking. \u00a0\u00a0Find your APN settings. \u00a0Restore default. If this doesn’t give you something like “orangeweb” or “orangeinternet”, enter a new APN setting, name=orangeinternet, apn=orangeinternet, everything else blank.<\/li>\n
  18. Reboot.<\/li>\n
  19. Call back because internet isn’t working.<\/li>\n
  20. Discover that you need to pay 25 pence for tech support, which you can’t do, since you ignored my advice previously and only put 5 pounds on the card so you have nothing left.<\/li>\n
  21. Go through the “top up” thing, get a sales person, vent.<\/li>\n
  22. Kindly sales person explains that your internet stops working when you have 0-balance, a fact no one mentioned, and you couldn’t find out because if you have 0-balance you can’t call tech support. \u00a0Kindly sales person puts an extra quid on the account so it should work.<\/li>\n
  23. Get text message that everything’s working, which awakens spouse since it’s now past midnight local time and you’ve been at this 2 hours. \u00a0Disable text message sound.<\/li>\n
  24. Reboot.<\/li>\n
  25. Get on the internet! \u00a0For real this time!<\/li>\n
  26. Get text message that your credit card has been declined. \u00a0Get booted from the internet.<\/li>\n
  27. Get new text message that you have been inexplicably been granted 10 megabytes of internet, and please get the credit card thing sorted.<\/li>\n
  28. Get urgent email from amex saying that they declined your ten pound charge just in case you’re not you, despite the fact that you called them yesterday and told them you’d be getting a phone in England so please turn off the fraud alerts<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  29. Use Google Voice to make a free call to Amex to give them a piece of your mind. \u00a0Have credit card reinstated.<\/li>\n
  30. Call up and have them re-charge the 5 pounds.<\/li>\n
  31. Get new URGENT VOICEMAIL from American Express fraud alert, waking wife again, explaining that your card may have been stolen. \u00a0Again.<\/li>\n
  32. Write bitter and vitriolic blog post.<\/li>\n
  33. Raid minibar. \u00a0Go to bed. (this step has not yet been tested)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here is the simple process for getting your Android device online with a data SIM in the UK. \u00a0It’s terribly fun, I recommend it to everyone. Before leaving, turn off your phone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chitchat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}